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Opera Online- Tosca Part 5

Welcome Teachers and Students to Opera Online!! This weeks webisode feature the singers who will be performing in Tosca. We'll take a look at the opera singers who will be portraying the roles of Tosca, Cavaradossi, and Scarpia.

Video Clips of the Week!!
In this video clip of the week we'll get a preview of the artists who will be playing Tosca, Cavaradossi, and Scarpia. All three opera singers will be making their debut at the Opera Company of Philadelphia.

The first video clip is of soprano Adina Nitescu, who will be playing Tosca. Nitescu is best known not only for her moving protrayal of Tosca, but also for performances as Cio-Cio-San in Puccini's Madame Butterfly and Mannon in Puccini's Mannon Lescaut. This video clip is from Mannon Lescaut at Glyndebourne Festival in 1997. Nitescu plays Mannon, a young woman who has left the man that she loves for wealth and security. In the clip she entertains the guest of the household by singing a minuet.

The second clip is of tenor Thiago Arancam who will be singing the role of Cavaradossi. The video clip is from a competition in Quebec in 2008. At this competition Arancam won the zarzuela prize, the audience prize and the second opera prize. The song "No puede ser" is an aria from the Spanish zarzuela La tabernera del puerto. In the song Arancam sings about his disbelief that the woman he loves could be a criminal.

The final clip is of baritione Boris Statsenko who will be playing the evil Scarpia. To contrast the villainous role he will be playing in Tosca, the video clip is from a performance from Rossini's The Barber of Seville. As the mischievous Figaro, Statsenko sings the famous "Largo al factotum" aria in which Figaro describes his importance as the town barber. Statsenko performed this role in Germany, France, Italy, Belgium and the Netherlands.

Adina Nitescu as Mannon in Mannon Lescaut (Italian with English Subtitles)



Thiago Arancam singing "No puede ser" (Spanish)




Boris Statsenko in The Barber of Seville (Italian)




Website of the Week!!
Want to learn more about Boris Statsenko and Thiago Arancam? Check out their professional websites for more information and sound clips of their performances!





Opera on the Air!!
On Saturday, April 23 at 1 PM WRTI will be broadcasting the The Metropolitan Opera production of Richard Strauss's Capriccio (sung in German). Renee Fleming sings the leading role of Countess Madeleine in this rare revival of Capriccio, the 15th (and final) opera by Richard Strauss composed when he was 80 years old. Capriccio was labeled as a "conversation piece for music." The subject of that conversation is the art of opera itself. The theme can be summarized as "Which is more important: words or music?" This question is dramatized in the story of a Countess torn between two suitors: Olivier, a poet, and Flamand, a composer. The production is conducted by Andrew Davis and will also feature mezzo-soprano Sarah Connolly as Clairon, tenor Joseph Kaiser as Flamand, and baritone Russell Braun as Olivier.

Want to see more of Puccini's operas? On Sunday, April 24 at 12 PM PBS Channel 39 will be broadcasting the MetHD production of La Fanciulla del West. La Fanciulla del West about an Old West saloon owner in a California gold-rush town who'll stop at nothing to get the man she wants. Starring soprano Deborah Voigt and tenor Marcello Giordani.






Until Next Week!





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